Adam+Savard

(image from http://www.mnstate.edu/provost/CHEMISTRY.JPG. No, I am not THAT good.)

=//I DIDN'T SAY "NUCULATION"...// =

media type="custom" key="5585993"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjbJELjLgZg

Simply because this intrigued me to such an extent when I took a look at this, I kind of wanted to know why it happens. Why in the world does Diet Coke and Mentos do what it does? Go figure, it has to do with Chemistry. Later in the episode itself, the Mythbusters conclude that the most likely culprit is //Nucleation//. What is nucleation? That's the same question I asked.

WiseGeek.com has something to say on the matter: "  Nucleation  is a physical reaction which occurs when components in a solution start to precipitate out, forming nuclei which attract more precipitate. "  To be honest, I literally said "what?" when I read that. I had to go to the one place I thought I never would to find something that I could understand. With the original Mythbusters video unavailable on the internet, I had to turn to Wikipedia. " **Nucleation** is the extremely localized budding of a distinct thermodynamic phase. Some examples of phases that may form via nucleation in liquids are gaseous bubbles, crystals, or glassy regions." 

To make a bit more sense of it, when you drop a mentos into a diet Coke, the reaction is due to gas bubble forming from the microscopic holes in the mentos. Various chemicals, as concluded by the Mythbusters, contribute to this, including caffeine and aspartame. The carbonation of the drink itself seems to have some contributing factor as well.

media type="custom" key="5586183" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKoB0MHVBvM

As seen above, this relatively simple Chemistry trick bring entertainment to a lot of people (not to mention 11,171,950 views on Youtube as of this post). I tend to wonder who would have thought of putting mentos in Coke, anyway. Still, it's interesting to know that you can spend about $6.95 plus tax for seven seconds of fun.

Diet Coke and Mentos eruption - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (n.d.). //Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia//. Retrieved March 10, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diet_Coke_and_Mentos_eruption Nucleation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (n.d.). //Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia//. Retrieved March 10, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nucleation What Is Nucleation?. (n.d.). //wiseGEEK: clear answers for common questions//. Retrieved March 10, 2010, from http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-nucleation.htm

__

Psychedelic Drugs: Medical uses?

Many people may recall the 60s, where the word "psychedelic" was use to a great extent. But do we really know what that means? Well, the word psychedelic can refer to the crazy colors that are associated with it and the 60s. Those colors and patterns, although some may argue that most are linked to the Mandelbrot set (I thought so, anyway), are actually linked to the drugs that people used. Reasearch has been made on them, all of it well in the past, but the reasearched was banned for a long time. Now, some doctors want to reopen this can of worms, so to speak, and do some more reasearch on it.

For those who don't know, psychedelic drugs cause highs in which the user halucinates various shapes, colors and forms. The drugs cause a chemical reaction in the brain which realeases vast amounts of dopamine, causing the "high". An example of this type of drug is LSD (or more commonly "Acid"). The drigs may have some medical uses, however, instead of the highs that people associate them to. Somewhat like the legal medical uses of Marijuana, or something of the sort. Although the reasearch on these drugs is still inconclusive, the results so far seem to have pleased the medical community interested in them.

media type="youtube" key="rGFlkcnZRFI" height="385" width="480"

Here's an example of what a Psychedelic drug can do to you. Although not confirmed, "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" could refer to LSD.

[]

=Nuclear Fusion: What is it?=

Nuclear Fusion is a process whereby nuclear energy is released very quickly. Not to be confused with the similar-sounding Nuclear Fission, This process is mostly observed in stars and atomic weapons, where hydrogen is converted in a chemical process to helium. As we already know, hydrogen contains only one proton, and helium two. The amount of energy required to produce a helium atom from hydrogen is astoundingly high, and it releases heat, light of various wavelengths, and radiation.

To quote from http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/, "If light nuclei are forced together, they will fuse with a yield of energy because the mass of the combination will be less than the sum of the masses of the individual nuclei. If the combined nuclear mass is less than that of iron at the peak of the [|binding energy] curve, then the [|nuclear particles] will be more [|tightly bound] than they were in the lighter nuclei, and that decrease in mass comes off in the form of energy according to the [|Einstein relationship]. For elements heavier than iron, [|fission] will yield energy." (http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/HBASE/NucEne/fusion.html)

Nuclear Fusion, although sounding like something out of the space age, has some practical applications in creating energy, heat, etc. for Nuclear Reactors in various places (like nuclear submarines, etc.)

//Nuclear Fusion. (n.d.). Test Page for Apache Installation. Retrieved April 28, 2010, from http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/HBASE/NucEne/fusion.html // //Nuclear Fusion | Nuclear Fusion | Science | atomicarchive.com. (n.d.). atomicarchive.com: Exploring the History, Science, and Consequences of the Atomic Bomb. Retrieved April 28, 2010, from http://www.atomicarchive.com/Fusion/Fusion1.shtml // //This was used to supply the main idea, and is not used anywhere inside the text. // //Nuclear fusion - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (n.d.). Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved April 28, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_fusion // //This was used to supply the main idea, and is not used anywhere inside the text. //